We only thought that those 10 billion in shares traded on the NYSE yesterday was a big deal.

Wait until the market closes today.

The Dow Jones Industrials Index has already been up more than 400 points this morning, on the back of a plan that is just now being announced by the Feds that will basically cover the losses of those financial institutions that went way too far in the mortgage banking fiasco of the last few years.

Yes, that means that you and I — the American taxpayers — are going to be on the hook for all this ultimately.

And who is responsible for all this? I still say, as I did for years in the Market Review of PlaneBusiness Banter — former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve. The Fed let the housing bubble get bigger and bigger and bigger — and did nothing to rein it in.

Why?

It was pretty obvious.

The housing bubble gave the appearance that the economy was healthier than it actually was.

And now?

Now we are all going to pay the price as Secretary Paulson from the Treasury Department just formally announced a plan where the government is going to allow financial institutions to package up all those bad loans and sell them to the U.S. government. A new government entity is also going to back up money market accounts. The only good news about this? It will finally, I would assume, allow the financial markets to put a value on these problematic mortgages that brought down Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch. (And had threatened Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as of yesterday.)

Treasury Secretary Paulson just finished speaking — giving more details on exactly what the government plans to do to correct the “illiquid mortgage” situation. His estimate of the price tag? Hundreds of billions of dollars.

So let’s cut to the chase — what could all of this mean for the airline industry?

It means that we have only begun to see the first peek at massive write-offs that are going to continue from many of the largest financial entities. As Bank of America officials said this week when they announced the deal with Merrill Lynch, they foresee continued issues into 2010.

Remember, even though this announcement from the Feds says that they are going to buy back all this bad paper — we don’t know how that is going to be accomplished, or at what price. So that means more losses for financial institutions. We just don’t know how much at this point.

Translation? Lousy economic conditions for at least the next two years, which doesn’t bode that well for increasing numbers of high paying fliers.

Oh, and secondly, the price of oil continues to hang around $100 and change today. As of this posting, oil futures are trading at $101.01, up over $3 on the day.